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Looking for the right cold email analytics tool can lead to a dead end or, worse, leave you with a tool that doesn’t meet your company’s needs. Facing this lack of clarity with your cold email analytics can be frustrating.
Countless cold emailers today are flying blind with no idea what works in their outreach and what doesn’t. It's frustrating to invest time and money in nurturing your campaigns only to fall short and have no idea what the problem is. We get it.
This is why we've compiled a list of the best cold email analytics tools to set you up for success. Let's get into it.
What to Look for in a Cold Email Analytics Tool
The right cold email analytics tool gives you the visibility, flexibility, and control to turn your outreach into a high-performing revenue engine. Here are the must-have features to look for:
1. The Basics: Opens, Replies, Clicks, Bounces, Unsubscribes
At the bare minimum, your analytics tool should track the foundational cold email metrics of any campaign. We’re talking:
Open rates: Checks the percentage of recipients who opened your email
Reply rates: Measures how many recipients responded to your email
Click-through rates: Show the percentage of recipients who click a link in your email
Bounce rates: Show the percentage of emails that didn’t go through
Unsubscribe rates: Measures how many recipients decided to opt out
These metrics are the first window into the health and performance of your outreach. Open rates, for instance, let you know how engaging your subject lines and email content are.
Bounces signal issues with your contact data or email deliverability. Reply rates indicate which messaging strikes a chord with your prospects. And unsubscribe rates tell you which content is turning people off.
With this baseline data, you can start to identify patterns and make more informed decisions about your cold email strategy.
2. Reply Categorization: Positive vs. Negative
Understanding the quality of the replies you're getting is just as important as tracking the raw number. The best cold email analytics tool uses sentiment analysis to categorize replies as either:
Positive ("love it, let's chat!"), or
Negative ("not interested, thanks")
This level of granular detail lets you understand how people feel about your outreach. Are you getting enthusiastic responses? Or are your messages falling flat and prompting angry replies?
3. Charts and Tables to View Trends
To truly optimize your cold email campaigns, you need to look at performance over time - not just at the moment. And while numbers work fine (for the most part), raw data can be overwhelming.
The right analytics tool paints a picture with simple visuals like charts, graphs, and tables. This way, you can easily spot trends and patterns that inform your strategy.
4. Error Detection, A/B Testing, and More
Beyond the core analytics, you need a tool that lets you troubleshoot issues and experiment with your campaigns. This takes the guesswork out of finding problems. Plus, it shows you which elements are driving the best results.
For instance, any decent tool should include error detection features that alert you of deliverability problems like spam filters or blacklisted IP addresses.
And let's not forget the A/B testing capabilities. The right analytics tool should let you experiment with different subject lines, sender names, copy variations, send times, and more.
5. CRM & Email Platform Integration
Efficiency cannot be ignored in cold email outreach. You need a tool that seamlessly integrates with your existing CRM and email platforms.
Not only does this streamline your workflow, it also syncs up your analytics with your other marketing efforts. The result is a holistic view of your campaigns.
Now that we’ve seen what you should look for in an effective cold email analytics tool let’s get down to brass tacks.
Best Tool for Cold Email Analytics - QuickMail
We’ve looked far and wide for top-tier analytics tools, and QuickMail is truly in a league of its own. It offers a comprehensive suite of features that optimizes every aspect of your campaigns to drive real results.
But don’t just take our word for it. A quick look at our customer stories shows why QuickMail’s analytics features stand out. Let’s get into the specifics:
1. Unparalleled Deliverability Insights
QuickMail is the first cold outreach software to offer send-day attribution. Unlike tools that merely track activity (i.e., when someone opens your email), QuickMail traces your metrics back to the exact date each email was delivered.
Why is this such a turning point for the industry? Let's say you send emails to three prospects. You email the first prospect on Saturday, the second on Sunday, and the third on Monday.
The first two recipients opened their emails on Monday, but the third never even saw the email because it landed in spam.
Based solely on activity, Monday shows a 66.67% open rate, leading you to believe it's the perfect send day. But QuickMail digs deeper with send-day attribution by prioritizing deliverability over activity. Here's what your report would look like:
| Recipients | Day of Send | Activity-based tracking (Other software approaches) | Deliverability-based tracking (QuickMail’s approach) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recipient 1 | Saturday | 0% activity (no one opened your email) | 100% deliverability (1 email sent, 1 confirmed received) |
| Recipient 2 | Sunday | 0% activity (no one opened your email) | 100% deliverability (1 email sent, 1 confirmed received) |
| Recipient 3 | Monday | Landed in spam, but the 2 previous emails were opened (66.67% opens) | 0% deliverability (1 email sent, 0 confirmed received) |
As you can see, Mondays do have a high open rate but we also see a deliverability issue – maybe your prospect was out of the office, or worse, there's a problem with your sending domain.
This approach lets you optimize campaigns with deliverability in mind. The result is a far better and more accurate picture of your performance. What’s more, QuickMail applies send-day attribution to other metrics like clicks, replies, bounces, and unsubscribes.
2. Powerful Sentiment Analysis
Generating replies is great, but understanding the quality of those responses is even more important.
QuickMail's sentiment analysis automatically categorizes replies as either positive (interested, sales-ready) or negative (uninterested, opted-out). It takes the guesswork out, so you can focus your efforts on the leads most likely to convert.
3. Cohort-Based Optimization
QuickMail doesn't just show you "the what" of your campaigns – it shows "the when" thanks to its cohort view. This feature lets you track results based on the date you first reached out to a prospect rather than the current date. Here’s a snapshot of how it looks:
You can also break down these cohorts by emails sent or campaign journeys to learn exactly how prospects are engaging (or not engaging) at each stage of your process.
4. Advanced Analytics and Automation
QuickMail’s advanced analytics dashboard gives you a 360-degree view of your campaign performance. Plus, with engaging visuals and actionable insights, optimizing your campaigns has never been easier.
Going the extra mile, QuickMail offers built-in A/B testing, so you can quickly experiment with different subject lines, email copy, and CTAs to see what resonates best.
4. Pricing & Trial
QuickMail’s pricing starts at just $49 per month. Plus, with its 14-day free trial, you can test out the platform risk-free before committing.
The bottom line? QuickMail is so much more than just a cold email analytics tool – it's a force multiplier for your outreach strategy. By arming you with the data and insights for informed decisions, QuickMail empowers you to turn your cold email campaigns into a reliable, scalable revenue engine.
9 Other Cold Email Analytics Tools Worth Considering
While QuickMail is our top pick for cold email analytics, it isn’t the only fish in the sea. Here are nine carefully selected alternatives (in no particular order) that may be worth exploring for your outreach needs:
1. Yesware
Yesware offers email tracking and analytics features to supercharge outreach efforts. While not as comprehensive as other options, Yesware's straightforward interface and integration with Gmail make it a solid choice for beginners.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Seamless integration with Gmail | Limited features compared to more robust platforms |
| User-friendly interface suitable for beginners | Lacks advanced features like send-day attribution, among others |
2. HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub is a popular sales software designed to help sales teams increase productivity, streamline their processes, and deepen customer connections. You can integrate Hubspot with QuickMail. Some of its key features and capabilities include:
Smart CRM integration
Automated workflows
Robust reporting and analytics
Sales engagement tools
Customization and configuration
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Smooth integration with your HubSpot CRM data | Missing some advanced features found in other dedicated analytics tools |
| Basic email tracking, analytics insights, and historical trend reporting | Pricing plans may be too high for small businesses |
3. Outreach.io
Outreach.io is a popular sales engagement platform with comprehensive email analytics. You can track metrics like open rates, reply rates, and link clicks, as well as view customizable dashboards.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Integrates with your existing sales tech stack | Primarily focused on sales engagement, not cold email |
| Advanced features like sequence automation and A/B testing | Some advanced features may require upgrading to a higher plan |
| Steeper learning curve compared to simpler tools |
4. Reply.io
Reply.io is an AI-driven sales engagement platform that includes email tracking and analytics as part of its features. It offers detailed metrics tracking, A/B testing, and advanced automation, making it ideal for teams looking to scale their outreach efforts.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Advanced automation and personalization features | The user interface can be overwhelming for beginners |
| Omnichannel outreach capabilities that integrate with popular CRMs | Some users report issues with deliverability and spam filtering |
| It’s designed specifically for sales management, not cold email analytics |
5. Woodpecker
Woodpecker is a cold email automation platform with built-in tracking and analytics features. Though it lacks some of the bells and whistles of larger platforms, Woodpecker makes up for it with its simplicity and ease of use.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Affordable pricing options for smaller teams | Limited to the basics of cold email analytics |
| User-friendly dashboard for tracking key metrics | Missing a lot of advanced features like A/B testing and sentiment analysis |
6. Lemlist
Lemlist is a sales automation and cold outreach tool that helps people and businesses reach their audience and generate replies. Its analytics suite provides features like email finder & verifier, personalization at scale, and multichannel prospection, among others.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Robust personalization features to boost engagement | Analytics are focused on the basics, with little flexibility |
| Integrates with your CRM and other sales tools | Pricing for outreach scale can be high for small teams |
7. Overloop (formerly Prospect.io)
Overloop is a sales engagement platform that helps small and medium-sized businesses with their sales prospecting and cold emailing efforts. The platform offers a decent list of cold email analytics features, including but not limited to:
Personalized cold emailing
Sales workflow integration
Powerful prospecting tools
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Simple, user-friendly dashboard | Missing advanced features like sentiment analysis or A/B testing for cold emails |
| Offers some basic campaign performance trends | Limited to the most essential cold email metrics |
8. Mailshake
Mailshake is a sales engagement and B2B lead generation platform that helps sales teams reach out to prospects more effectively. It combines email outreach, sales engagement, and analytics in one convenient platform by letting users:
Create personalized email sequences and send them to targeted leads automatically
Schedule their emails, follow up, and manage leads to streamline the sales process
Assess the performance of their sales outreach with detailed analytics and reporting
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Clean, intuitive user interface | Analytics are too basic for complex cold email campaigns |
| An affordable option for basic needs | No advanced features like cohort analysis or A/B testing |
9. Streak (for Gmail)
Streak is a CRM built directly into Gmail that includes basic email tracking and analytics features. It doesn't have some advanced capabilities, but Streak is a convenient option for Gmail users looking to manage their outreach efforts within their inboxes
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Provides basic email tracking and analytics insights to measure performance | Limited to just fundamental analytics without the breadth of features found in other platforms |
| User-friendly interface for Gmail users | Some users report issues with reliability and performance |
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Do cold emails still work in 2024?
Absolutely. The landscape is more competitive, no doubt. However, cold emailing remains one of the most effective ways to reach new prospects and drive business growth.
2. How do I track cold emails?
The most comprehensive way to track your cold email performance is with a dedicated email analytics platform like QuickMail. You get real-time insights on KPIs like replies, deliverability, and recipient sentiment – all tied back to the specific days you sent your outreach.
3. How do I get data for cold emailing?
Start by going through your past campaign performance to identify what's working (and what's not). Then, use tools like QuickMail to collect granular, up-to-the-minute insights on your current outreach efforts.
4. How many cold emails should I send per day?
There's no one-size-fits-all answer. The ideal number of daily cold emails you should send depends on factors like your target audience, email cadence, and campaign goals.
A good rule of thumb is to start small (e.g., 10-20 per day) and gradually scale up as you gather data and fine-tune your strategy. QuickMail offers an inbox rotation feature to help with this.
Ready to Track Cold Email Analytics With the Best Tool?
If you're serious about driving positive, consistent results from your cold email campaigns, QuickMail is your best bet.
With unparalleled data insights and automation tools, QuickMail delivers on every front. But don’t just take our word for it.
Customers like Demio used QuickMail's outbound prospecting capabilities to help land 500 new customers in seven days.
Want to see results like this? Start your free QuickMail trial today.
